My jumping-in point was the 56k modems.

I think I could still tell by ear if the connection was happening properly or not, almost like a delightful melody all that modem squeal. Never got into ICQ.. for me it was mIRC and attempting to chat with a main chat group and maybe six or seven other chat windows simultaneously and transferring files with DCC too. Heady days.. or nights actually, cheaper at nights but still expensive at $2.50 per hour. I remember trying to check out some Russian website and it never did finish for me, the bandwidth available must have been so poor back then.